Learning Curves
by sasha1600
Summary: Tim and Abby’s daughter Kate gets some unsolicited help with her homework. Set in the Future Perfect universe. Warning: references to spanking.
1. Chapter 1

**Learning Curves**

**Summary**: Tim and Abby's daughter Kate gets some unsolicited help with her homework. Set in the Future Perfect universe. Warning: references to spanking.

**Disclaimer**: Kate and Leigh are mine; the rest belong to other people.

* * *

A/N: This is set in the 'Future Perfect' universe, which features Caitlyn and Leigh, the twin daughters of Tim and Abby.

**

* * *

**

Warning: this story contains references to the spanking of children and adults. This is no on-screen spanking. If you have a problem with that, please go read something else.

* * *

Gibbs stepped over the bag that Katie had left in the hallway and called out a cheerful hello. He hadn't seen her since Christmas. And Leigh had managed to get home for the same weekend; having both twins at the dinner table was becoming an increasingly rare treat for their family.

'How's MIT this semester?'

'I _hate_ MIT!' she practically shrieked, not looking up from where she was rummaging in the refrigerator.

Gibbs raised a questioning eyebrow at Tim, who shrugged, equally confused. Just then, Leigh stepped through the back door, still panting slightly from her run.

'She means she hates the fact that MIT has a phys-ed requirement,' she said with a smirk, kissing Gibbs on the cheek before heading off to shower and change out of her sweats.

Gibbs wisely changed the subject.

X X X

Abby set a huge bowl of pasta on the table and checked to make sure everything else was there before sitting down opposite her husband. After a few minutes, the conversation turned to Leigh's basketball team's latest victory, and Kate started grumbling again about her own athletic ineptitude.

'I thought you'd found a health class that satisfied that requirement?' Gibbs asked. When he'd seen her at Christmas, she'd been jubilant about finding a way out of taking a gym class.

'Yeah, and so did everyone else. They had a lottery to decide who got in. I didn't. And since this is the only semester when I have time for it, I had to take something else. So I took the least _physical_ thing they were offering.'

'Yoga?'

Kate shot him a disgusted look.

'Yeah, like I'm that flexible! Pistol.'

'As in...?'

'It sounded better than something where you have to _run_ and stuff. And it felt kinda weird being the only one in the family who didn't know how to use a gun, so...'

'Ok... so what's the problem?'

'The _problem_ is that _I can't do it!!!_ The only time I ever got a bullet anywhere near the bull's-eye, _it wasn't on MY target!_'

Tim smiled sympathetically. He'd known his daughter had chosen pistol, but she'd always managed to change the subject when he asked about it when they talked on the phone, and he hadn't known she was struggling with the class. But before he could share his own remembered dismay about a disastrous college fencing class, Kate burst out angrily, 'This is all your fault, Daddy!'

Tim looked stunned by the accusation, but Kate continued before he could say anything in reply.

'If I hadn't been hearing about your precious MIT from the time I was two, I never would have gone there and right now I'd be at some college that doesn't _have_ a fff... phys ed requirement! And now I'm going to fail the course, and it's going to destroy my GPA, and I'm gonna have to take _another_ gym class if I'm gonna graduate!'

She threw her fork down angrily and started to push back her chair, but was prevented from moving by Gibbs's hand on her shoulder and a growled 'Caitlyn' close to her ear. Instead, she crossed her arms in front of her and pouted.

'Why didn't you ask for help when you started having trouble, Katie?' Abby asked. 'Like you said, you know enough people who know how to shoot.'

'Because I've never failed a class before! It's embarrassing!'

Gibbs met Abby's eye across the table. Like mother, like daughter.

'Katie, honey, you haven't failed the course yet. Let me help you. I have a meeting with a JAG lawyer tomorrow morning about a case that's going to trial next week, but I should be done early enough to get in a couple of hours at the range.'

'I can take her, Tim. I've got nothing planned for tomorrow.'

'Are you sure?'

'Yeah. Besides, it might be easier for her to learn from someone who's also right-handed.'

'Right... ok. Ok, honey?'

Kate was still in a sulk, and she somewhat resented that the matter had been decided without consulting her, except belatedly.

'Yeah, because I want to spend my weekend off working on my _least_ favourite subject,' she mumbled.

Gibbs decided to ignore the attitude, for now.

'I'll pick you up around 10. Leigh, do you want to get in some extra time on the range?'

'No, I'm good. I'm meeting a couple of high school friends for lunch. And I'm at the top of my class in marksmanship, anyway. My instructor is always saying that I should be a sniper, not a pilot.'

Kate stared daggers across the table at her twin, feeling about ready to throttle her.

She was also alternating between being grateful that her Uncle Gibbs was going to solve her phys-ed crisis for her, and worried about the prospect of learning to shoot from a Marine Gunny. Coach Matthews was scary enough.

She stewed for a few more minutes, thinking about how much she loathed gym class, and always had, and how absurd it was to still require phys-ed classes in _college_. She allowed herself a moment's indulgence in regret for not having gone to a school that didn't, before quietly admitting, as she always did, that a degree from MIT was worth putting up with a semester of hell. If only Leigh had gone there with her, the way they'd both planned when they were much younger...

'What's so funny, Kate?'

Leigh always could read her moods faster than anyone.

'Just remembering how we dealt with this problem in ninth grade, and kinda wishing you'd gone to MIT with me.'

'Oh, gawd... I'd almost forgotten about that!'

Leigh was frantically gesturing at her not to go into any further detail. Hopefully their parents would just think that having her twin around to encourage her had made the class more bearable.

Abby, however, asked what she meant, and Kate answered before her brain registered what a bad idea that was.

'It was the first year when we had different schedules, and Leigh had French, which she hated, at the same time that I had gym, which I hated. So... we traded places.'


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: just a reminder that the Future Perfect universe has draggon-flye's Our Family series as a backdrop. The basic premise is that Gibbs spanked both Abby and Tim for the first time in response to their actions in the episode Bloodbath, and that that was Tim's first spanking ever, having been raised by parents who opposed all corporal punishment.

* * *

Leigh hung her head, nearly planting her face in her plate. Tim stared at them both in wide-eyed shock, but Abby giggled.

'That's the kind of thing I'd do, if I had a twin. How many gym classes did you get out of that way?'

'The whole semester.'

'You did WHAT?!' Tim raged, recovering his voice.

'Tim...'

'No, Abby, don't shush me. They _cut class_ for an entire _semester_!'

'Well, not exactly, Daddy. We both _went_ to class...'

'But not the right ones!'

'It was grade nine gym, Daddy! _Gym_!'

'And _French_.'

'Which I'll never use.'

'That's not the point. There are very good reasons why you have to take a second language in high school...'

'Really, Timmy, have you ever _taken _French? It's horrible!'

'Abigail...'

'...and it doesn't matter what class it was – you don't cut it.'

'Ok, Daddy.'

'Don't use that tone with me, Caitlyn. How many of your classes at MIT are you skipping because you don't feel like going?'

'It's _college_, Daddy! If I want to get the lecture notes on-line instead of going to an 8am class, that's my business. I've got a 4.0 average... or, I did, before I had to take _gym_!'

'Well, I haven't cut a single class...'

'_You_ can't! Jeez, don't they put you on bread and water for a week if you sleep through class, or something?'

'Not quite.'

'Well, you're both going to be going to class on Monday with sore butts.'

It was hard to tell which twin said what in the ensuring confusion. A couple of 'what?!'s were heard, a 'you've got to be kidding me' and a 'no way in hell' tumbled out at the same time, and some slightly more frantic protests filled the room until a shrill whistle silenced everyone momentarily.

'Tim...'

'No, Abby, I'm serious. Do you realise that neither one of them actually fulfilled the requirements to graduate from high school? They received their diplomas under false pretences! They could get kicked out of college for something like that, and the Navy doesn't take kindly to people falsifying their educational qualifications on their enlistment documents.'

'Stop over-reacting! Besides...'

'We're federal agents, Abby! Technically, we should report...'

'You are _not_ turning in my babies...'

'You'd never prove anything, Daddy. We'd say we were just joking...'

'No, I'm not going to turn them in, but I'm not going to just ignore it, either!'

'You _can't _spank us, Daddy! We're too old.'

The twins weren't entirely sure why the three adults burst into laughter at Kate's last comment.

At least, not until Tim explained.

'Katie, I was about thirty when I got my _first_ spanking!'

Both girls gaped open-mouthed at their father. The idea that they _weren't_ too old to be spanked left them both slightly stunned; the prospect of physical punishments continuing well into adulthood was mildly appalling, and the image of their father being spanked as a full-grown man was simply shocking. Kate recovered first.

'Daddy... _who_ would do that you, at _that_ age?'

'Me.'

The twins shifted their startled expressions to Gibbs, who looked back at them calmly, as if his matter-of-fact statement had been anything other than astonishing. In retrospect, it had been hinted at often enough over the years, but neither girl had actually put the pieces together before.

'But... why?'

Tim shrugged.

'I needed it.'

Kate's mind reeled as she processed the information. She'd grown up used to the subtle deference underneath the easy familiarity of her father's relationship with Gibbs, and the way he sometimes still called him 'Boss.' And she'd been witness to a few headslaps, although it was more common for those to be directed at Uncle Tony. She and Leigh had even speculated in hushed whispers about whether he had ever been subjected to one of Gibbs's hard looks or scathing lectures, but it had never occurred to them that he might have experienced real punishment at his boss's hands.

Kate had always quietly resented the fact that their father spanked them, when his parents had never spanked him as a child. It had seemed unfair that he wasn't giving his children the benefit of the same parenting strategy, and that he spanked them without knowing what it felt like to be on the receiving end, never having been there himself. Finding out that he had been spanked after all deflated that long-held grudge.

And finding out that he'd been spanked by _Gibbs_, just like both girls had been, seemed to create an extra bond within the family, strengthening Gibbs's role as a grandfather in everything that mattered, and giving Tim something more in common with his daughters. When he'd sympathised with their childhood complaints that Uncle Gibbs spanked hard, she realised now, he'd been speaking from experience.

And it spoke volumes, she knew, about her father's relationship with his boss. To accept that kind of punishment, to trust Gibbs enough to let him hurt him, to allow such a profoundly personal exercise of an authority not normally associated with a professional context, meant that he had to see him as even more of a mentor than she had ever suspected. And to experience the pain and emotion of a spanking for the first time as an adult must have strengthened those feelings even further. For all that she saw 'Uncle' Gibbs as a grandfather, it hadn't really occurred to her that her father considered him a father-figure rather than merely a friend and former colleague.

And, thinking about the bond that had been formed between her father and Gibbs, she wondered if she would ever have that sort of relationship herself, with someone outside her existing family.

She exchanged a quick look with her sister, communicating silently in that way the twins had, and knew that Leigh had been thinking much the same thoughts. They would definitely have to talk later.

She was startled out of her reverie by Abby's cheerful declaration that she'd been spanked, too, by Gibbs. For some reason, Kate found that slightly less shocking, perhaps because she knew her mother had been spanked as a little girl. It would make more sense, she thought, for her to see it as a reasonable consequence if she really messed up, even as an adult. Still, it was almost a relief when Tim turned the conversation back to the twins' adolescent class swapping.

'So you two are _definitely_ not too old to be spanked.'

'But, it was ages ago, Daddy... isn't there some kind of time limit on punishments?' Leigh asked, shooting an angry glare across the table at Kate.

'Only if I'm going to _arrest_ you. There's no statute of limitations on spanking you.'

'She has a point, Tim. It's not much of a deterrent, at this point. It's not like they can try something like that again; Katie wouldn't last ten minutes, pretending to be a midshipman.'

Leigh smiled, and Kate thought that she probably would have laughed herself at the prospect of masquerading as a Naval Academy student, if it had been suggested in a different context.

'Preventing future crimes isn't the only reason we punish people, Abby. We wouldn't bother with a lot of cold cases if _consequences_ didn't matter.'

'Would you listen to yourself? You are being ridiculous! You're talking about _spanking_ your grown daughters for something they did when they were _children_.'

'Abby...'

'They're barely even the same people that they were in ninth grade! Katie still wanted to be an animal-rights lawyer and Leigh was going to be either a professional soccer player or a movie critic. Just what do you think you're proving by punishing them now, for something they did then?'

Kate found herself holding her breath as her father looked hesitantly at Gibbs. Aside from his monosyllabic explanation, he'd stayed out of the conversation, leaving the matter to the twins' parents the way he had always normally done when they hadn't been left in his care or broken one of his rules. Even now, unmistakeably asked to contribute, he still hesitated before speaking.

'Abby's right, Tim. You're not going to teach them anything they don't already know by dealing with it after all this time, and they're hardly being burdened by guilt over it. Unless you want it to be about retribution rather than correction, let it go.'

Kate slowly exhaled, recognising the subtle shift in her father's expression. To be fair, a flat-out refusal to co-operate would probably have been effective, but she wasn't sure she had it in her to hold out for very long against her father's determination. She started to relax.

But, catching sight of her sister's face across the table, she realised that the issue was far from closed.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Thanks to draggon-flye for a couple of key suggestions.

* * *

Kate leaned back in her seat, letting her eyes drift closed. It was earlier than she was usually awake on a Saturday. And the fact that she was on her way to a firing range with Gibbs didn't help her mood any.

At least the inhumanly early start this morning had given her an excuse not to talk too long with Leigh last night. As she'd expected, her sister was furious with her for letting it slip about their class swapping, snapping at her to 'engage brain before mouth.' But to her surprise, Leigh had been a bit less troubled about the revelation that Uncle Gibbs had spanked their parents. Her experience in the Navy, where consequences like having to run laps or do push-ups were common, had made it less surprising to her that adults could face physical punishment, and similarities between being restricted to quarters or made to scrub down shower stalls, and being grounded or given extra chores, had blurred the distinction between professional and familial discipline in her mind. Leigh had been just as stunned by the idea at first, but she had recovered quicker.

It was all too soon when they arrived at the range. Kate stepped sleepily out of the car, surprised that Gibbs had let her doze for the entire drive. Her hopes that she wouldn't be allowed to use the facility were quickly dashed when the manager greeted Gibbs by name and cheerfully welcomed her when she was introduced as Tim McGee's daughter. She signed the forms that were put in front of her, and tried not to sigh too loudly while Gibbs explained about her college class and the two men laughed about her instructor's obvious inability to actually teach her how to shoot. The formalities were over quickly, and Kate followed her godfather out of the office and down a hallway.

To her surprise, he didn't immediately put her in front of a target and tell her to demonstrate how much she already knew, as she'd expected him to do. Instead, he steered her into a small seminar room. _If he makes me watch that ridiculous firearms safety video that Coach Matthews showed us, with the cartoon penguins, I'm going scream_, she thought to herself. She watched him set the case he was carrying on the table and pull out a handgun, relieved to see that it looked pretty much like the standard competition pistols she had been learning with, rather than something more like the NCIS-issue side arms she'd seen, which were larger and, she assumed, heavier.

Before she could wonder why he had one of the smaller variety handy, he deftly disassembled the weapon and handed it to her. In pieces.

Kate squawked, looking up at him in horror.

'We don't have to do this sh... stuff, for class!'

She gestured ineffectively, trying not to drop anything.

'Well, you have to do it for me. Watch.'

He reclaimed the various pieces and effortlessly transformed them into a gun, explaining as he went how everything worked, then immediately broke it apart again.

'Now you try.'

'But... I can't even put a jigsaw puzzle together, Uncle Gibbs! I can't...'

'I would have thought a kid who liked nothing better than putting scrap electronics components together would welcome a challenge like this.'

'Electronics, maybe... not mechanics...' she muttered. A quick glance at Gibbs's face, however, confirmed that he wasn't going to give in on the issue, and she tentatively slotted two bits of metal together. It took her half a dozen attempts, but she finally succeeded in recreating a functional weapon.

There was, of course, no explicit praise forthcoming, just a curt nod and a grunt and a hand steering her, finally, towards the firing range itself. Passing one of the observation windows, she glanced inside, wondering how many witnesses there would be to her humiliation. There were only a few other people there, she saw to her relief, and one end of the row of targets was completely empty, so there was a chance of some degree of privacy. Her relief, however, was short-lived. As her focus shifted from the shooters to their targets, her eyes widened in horror, taking in the human-shaped outlines. She stepped back, shaking her head frantically.

'No way. Nonononono. You can't possibly expect me to shoot at targets that look like _people_!'

'Well, what else do you expect a target to look like?'

'A bull's-eye! You know, a round thing that looks like a dart board? That's what we use at school...'

'Well, here you're using that,' he insisted implacably, pointing at a target.

'But...'

'The head is round. Just aim for...'

'WHAT!'

'Katie, it's a piece of paper! Get over it. Now put these on.'

Gibbs clearly considered the matter closed. Kate accepted the ear protectors and slipped them on, glaring at him mutinously, still annoyed at the form the targets took. It wasn't the official government range, but it was one used mainly by current and former police and military, so it made sense that it would use outline human forms. But just because it was logical, didn't mean she liked it. She was still muttering under her breath when she stepped through the heavy metal door and let Gibbs lead her to the last target.

She took the gun from him and took a deep breath, trying to steady her nerves enough to keep her hands from shaking too much. She got into the now-familiar stance, her legs spread slightly and her arms in front of her, and fired hesitantly at the too-human target. As she expected, the bullet pierced the paper somewhere above and to the right of the head. She waited for Gibbs to say something, and when he didn't, fired again, trying to compensate for her tendency to pull too far to the right, succeeding only in putting a round through the far left edge of the paper. Again, Gibbs said nothing. She proceeded to empty the gun, not getting a single shot anywhere near the centre of the target.

Kate stopped to reload, glancing pointedly over her shoulder. 'See? I'm hopeless!' she complained. Gibbs still said nothing.

Before she could raise the gun again, she felt him step closer to her, adjusting her posture with a series of silent nudges and finally wrapping his arms around her and placing his hands over her own.

'Try it now' she heard him say, barely audible through the ear protectors. She was used to Coach Matthews bellowing all through class, but she had to admit that Gibbs's approach was a lot less stressful, if a bit disconcerting.

She squeezed the trigger, missing the target by a lot less than before. Gibbs adjusted her position slightly, and she tried again, this time managing to put a bullet through her target's shoulder. Gibbs continued to guide her aim as she emptied the gun for a second time, putting the rest of the rounds into the target.

'Better,' she heard him bark as she reloaded again. 'But you need to work on your breathing. And pay attention to what your body is doing, and fire between heartbeats.'

She looked up at him in confusion.

'Trust me,' he said, resuming his place behind her and manoeuvring her into position.

For a long moment she just stood there, trying to figure out the rhythm of her heartbeat. Finally, she squeezed the trigger, and gave a small yelp of surprise when a hole appeared in the centre of the target's head.

'Now try it on your own,' Gibbs said, releasing her hands and stepping back.

It took a while longer before she managed to repeat the feat without Gibbs steadying her aim, but eventually, with his continued encouragement, suggestions, and nudges when she started to slouch, she was putting round after round through the head, having decided to take Gibbs's suggestion to treat it like a round bull's-eye target. Not very many of them were in the centre of the thing, but it was definitely a marked improvement.

Finally, Gibbs let her stop and she rolled her shoulders in exhaustion as she followed him out of the range.

'You still need some practice, but you're on the right track. You should be able to get a good score by the end of your term.'

She nodded, easing off the ear protectors and swallowing a few times to adjust to an unmuffled world.

'Thanks, Uncle Gibbs. I think I might actually pass, now.'

'You're a pretty quick study. I don't know why your teacher didn't manage to get you shooting straight.'

'Well, he never told us anything about breathing or heart rates or anything like that, and he doesn't, you know... _touch_ the students, so...'

Gibbs looked at her in astonishment.

'He doesn't correct your stance?'

'Well, he yells at you for doing it _wrong_, but he doesn't really _fix_ it or anything.'

Kate wasn't entirely sure, but she though she heard her godfather muttering something about useless morons as he ushered her out to the parking lot.


	4. Chapter 4

Kate smiled with satisfaction as she finished firing. Two of her shots were very close to the centre of the bull's-eye, and the rest were respectably placed.

'McGee?! What the hell happened?!'

Kate spun around and stifled a laugh at the expression on Coach Matthews's face.

'Last week you could barely hit the target!'

'I went home for the weekend...'

'And changed places with an identical twin who knows how to handle a gun?'

Kate nearly choked. She was pretty sure her coach didn't know that she really _did _have an identical twin... much less that her twin was a midshipman at the Naval Academy and was pretty damn good with a gun. Somehow managing to contain her laughter, she answered, 'My godfather gave me some advice.'

Coach Matthews looked like he still didn't believe what his eyes were telling him.

'Your godfather must be a magician if he managed to teach _you_ how to get a bullet anywhere near the bull's-eye! What college did he shoot for?'

_Trust Coach Matthews to think that college competitions are the defining standard of marksmanship_, she thought scornfully.

'He didn't...'

The man scowled.

'He's a retired Marine sniper,' she continued, watching with amusement as her coach processed the information. _Meaning he's a better shot than __you_, she thought as she turned back to her target. For the first time in her life, Kate found herself smiling about something in gym class.


End file.
